To achieve high manufacturing yields, the semiconductor industry depends on careful inspections of photomasks, bare silicon wafers, and processed silicon wafers. The inspection requirements are becoming more stringent as the industry inscribes smaller features on each new generation of integrated circuits. The resolution of optical inspection systems is becoming inadequate to find the small defects which can spoil the performance of an integrated circuit. To find smaller defects, the industry will increasingly rely on electron-beam inspection systems and review stations, which offer at least 10 times better resolution than optical systems. These inspection systems are variations on the traditional scanning electron microscope. Such inspection systems and review stations may, of course, find use in evaluation of other samples, such as biological samples, metallurgical samples, and the like.